I am a Burmese exile taking a near-permanent refuge in New York and Sydney. Here are my essays about Burma and anything else I feel like writing about. And posting the articles I like from selected sites. Bridging Burma to the world this Blog is more of a Politically-Oriented Literary Blog than a Plain News Blog or a Sophisticated Thoughts Blog.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Islamic Genocide of Buddhists In Bangladesh – Part 1

The Chittagong Hill Tracts (hereafter
CHT), an area of 13,295 square kilometers, is the south eastern part of
Bangladesh, bordering the Arakan and Chin States of Burma, and Tripura and
Mizoram States of India.

From the time immemorial the CHT have
been the home of thirteen indigenous ethnic groups. They collectively identify
themselves as the Jumma people, the first peoples of the CHT. They are Chakma,
Marma, Tripura, Tanchangya, Mro, Murung, Lushai, Khumi, Chak, Khyang, Bawm,
Pankhua, and Reang.

The Jumma people are distinct and
different from the majority Bengali population of Bangladesh in respect of
race, language, culture, religion and ethnicity.

1. British
Period(1787-1947):

Similar to other indigenous peoples of
the world, the Jumma people were also independent before the British colonial
period. The British annexed the CHT area in 1860 and created an autonomous
administrative district known as "The Chittagong Hill Tracts" within
the undivided British Bengal.

In 1900, the British enacted the Regulation
1 of the 1900 Act in order to protect the Jumma people from economic
exploitation of non indigenous people and to preserve their traditional
sociocultural and political institutions based on customary laws, common
ownership of land and so on.

Throughout the British colonial period
the 1900 Act functioned as a safeguard for the Jumma people, prohibited land
ownership and migrations of non indigenous peoples in the CHT. In 1947, Indian
subcontinent was partitioned on the basis of religion, Pakistan for Muslims and
secular India for non Muslims and Muslims alike.

Despite 98.5% of the population of the
CHT were Jummas and thus non Muslims, the Pakistani leadership conspired and
the Boundary Commission of Great Britain ceded the CHT to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh)
in violation of the principles of partition and against the wishes of the Jumma
people. The Jummas vehemently protested against the decision, but to no avail.

On 15 August, 1947 the Chakma youths
under the leadership of Sneha Kumar Chakma hoisted tricolor Indian fag at
Rangamati, capital of the CHT and in the southern CHT at Bandarban the Marmas
who have cultural similarity with Burma hoisted Burmese fag. Six days later the
Indian flag at Rangamati was lowered by the Pakistani Army at gun point.

2. Pakistan
Period(1947-1971):

Buddhist girls of Chittagong Hill Tracts.

From the very outset the Pakistani
Government looked at the Jummas with an eye of suspicion for being anti
Pakistani during the partition. Jummas were discriminated in jobs, business and
education.

During the Pakistani rule, the
Government of Pakistan amended the 1900 Act several times
against the wishes of the Jumma people in order to find a legal excuse for
migration of non indigenous people into the CHT.

It deliberately ignored the fact that
the 1900 Act was an indispensable legal instrument for ensuring the safeguard
of the Jummas, and that it could not be amended without mutual agreement. On
contrary, Pakistani Government interpreted the 1900 Act as a legacy of British
colonial administration which helped separating the CHT from the rest of the
country.

The predicament of the Jumma people
began with the building of a hydroelectric dam in the early sixties which
flooded 1,036 Square Kilometers of land, submerged 40% of the best arable land
and displaced 100,000 Jummas from their ancestral homes.

3. Bangladesh
Period(1971- Present):

Young Buddhist Novices of Chittagong Hill Tracts.

After nine months of war of
independence with Pakistan, Bangladesh emerged as an independent state on 16
December 1971. During the war of independence it was alleged that the Jummas in
general remained indifferent to the cause of war against Pakistan.

Soon after the Pakistani army withdrew,
the Mukti Bahini (liberation forces of Bangladesh) went on rampage against the
Jummas in the CHT.

On 15 February 1972, a delegation of
the Jumma people led by M.N. Larma, called on Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman and submitted a written memorandum with four point charter of demands
consisting of 1) Autonomy for the CHT, 2) Retention of the CHT Regulation 1900,
3) Recognition of the three kings of the Jummas, 4) Ban on the influx of the
non Jummas into the CHT.

Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
categorically rejected these demands. In March 1972, M.N. Larma formed Jana
Samhati Samiti (JSS), later a military wing the Shanti Bahini was added to it.

4. Arrests, Tortures
and Kidnapping:

In the name of counter-insurgency the
Jummas have often been detained and tortured by the army. Thousands have
perished in the armed encounters, extra-judicial executions, tortures, rapes
and so on. Bangladesh security forces often resorted to mass detention and
torture of the helpless villagers and left many of them crippled for life.

For further consolidating their authority over
the villagers, security forces have uprooted villages and forcibly kept them in
so called "cluster villages" (known as concentration camps), where
they live under constant supervision of the military.

5. Bengali Muslim
Settlers:

In the late 1970s President Zia
sponsored migration of Bangladeshi settlers into the CHT, providing land
grants, cash and rations. This programme was not made public at the time, and
its existence was denied by the representative of the government.

Now the government acknowledges that
there was a programme of sponsored migration. Bangladeshi settlers, with the
connivance of the almost totally Bengali administration, have been able to take
over land and even whole villages from the Jummas. By 1981 the Bangladeshis
made up nearly one third of the total population of the CHT.

6. Forcible
Conversion and Religious Persecution:

Al-Rabita, the Muslim World League.

Forcible conversion is considered as a
state sponsored method of assimilation. Al-Rabita, a Saudi
government funded NGO, is the main Islamic missionary organisation active in
the region, backed by the military, it is entrusted with the Islamisation of
the region.

The Jammat-i-Islam, an Islamic
fundamentalist party works actively with the military in the CHT. The number of
mosques and madrashas(Islamic schools) are rapidly increasing in the area.
Apart from proselytisation, there have been religious persecution in the form
of violation and destruction of religious places of the Jummas by the
Bangladesh military.

In 1986, within a period of eight
months 54 Buddhist temples have been destroyed and 22 Hindu temples were burnt
down by the Bangladesh military.

7. Massacres:

Since 1980 there have been 13 major instances
of massacre of the Jummas by the Bangladeshi settlers and the Bangladeshi
security personnel. These are:

1.Kaukhali-Kalampati Massacre, 25 March 1980 - Bangladesh
Army and the Bangladeshi settlers gunned down 300 Jummas.

2.Banraibari-Beltali-Belchari Massacre, 26 June 1981: - Bangladeshi
settlers under the protection of the Bangladesh Army, murdered hundreds of
Jummas.

3. Telafang-Ashalong-Tabalchari Massacre, 19 September
1981: - The Bangladesh Army and the settlers invaded the Jumma villages
of Feni valley and murdered hundreds of Jummas.

4. Golakpatimachara-Machyachara-Tarabanchari Massacre,
June-August 1983: - The Bangladesh Army and the settlers executed months long
campaign against the Jumma villages and murdered 800 Jummas.

5.Bhusanchara Massacre, 31 May 1984 - the massacre
was carried out jointly by the 26 Bengal Regiment of the Bangladesh Army and
the Bangladeshi settlers. At least 400 Jummas were killed. Many women were gang
raped and later shot dead.

6.Panchari Massacre, 1 May 1986 - hundreds of Jummas
(actual number not known) were killed and injured by the Bangladesh Army.
80,000 Jummas fled across the border to India.

7.Matiranga Massacre, May 1986 - The
Bangladesh Army gunned down at least 70 Jumma civilians in reprisal to fighting
with the Shanti Bahini.

The Jana Samhati Samiti (JSS), the
political platform of the Jumma people signed a treaty with the Bangladesh
government on 2 December, 1997. The treaty failed to safeguard the survival of
the Jumma people. The Bangladesh government did not have the sincere desire to
solve the problem of the CHT.

The treaty had rather been used by the
Bangladesh government as a facade to impress the donor countries. The treaty
does not address the fundamental problem of the Bangladeshi settlers and the
militarisation of the CHT, it rather legalizes the settlers in the CHT.